„Hail and may God’s blessings shine upon you! I’m Saint Vitus, the patron saint of Krems. I’m also the patron saint of dancers and apothecaries and I can cure epilepsy. Should anything do be beset with doubt and fitful starts, invoke me and on your behalf, I’ll intercede with Him on High. I was made in around 1520 for the Burgesses‘ Hospice in Krems and though forgotten, I am a masterpiece of northern Renaissance art. Between the Burgesses‘ Hospice Church and Schmidl’s Bookshop, there is an arcade which was once a refectory. At first was placed on a pedestal between the columns but then at the end of the Renaissance, I was moved to a niche on the right-hand side of the door that leads to the church. Adding insult to injury, my red beret, which symbolised learning, was painted beige, a drab colour that is well-suited to the benightedness that followed. Once an elegant space, the handsome vaults now house a dog’s dinner of glass shown cases, so in fact I’m glad that I’m now in Museum Krems, where free of charge, you can visit me.
As you can see, I’m way too young to be dressed in anything beige and after refusing to renounce my faith in God, I was martyred by being placed in a vat of oil which was then heated. As the cauldron got hotter and hotter my feet got burnt first. This made me dance up and down so that for a while at least, one foot was temporarily relieved of pain. For this reason I was made the patron saint of dancers and then the apothecaries adopted me as well. If you look carefully, you will see that the legs of my cauldron are asymmetrical. There was also a third leg at the back but that got broken off when the crude buffoons who put me in the niche found that it stuck out too much at the back. The triangle marked out by the legs was a 13,14,15 triangle. This occurs at the end of a book by the Renaissance artist and mathematician, Piero della Franchesca, it is also defines the prism shown on the Reloading Humanism Main Menu page.
As a hidden property the triangle contains the proportion known as the Golden Section. This was used by the anonymous sculptor who made me, as a structuring principle.
For a detailed examination of my time in the Burgesses‘ Hospice and of the triangle that was used as a basis of composition there is an article published by the Proceedings of the Krems Town Archive: www.mitteilungen.at,
For more about my self and on the relation between Piero della Francesca’s art and his mathematics, there is the Reloading Humanism Guide, Art and Mathematics in Krems, the Wachau and Borgo Sansepoolcro. Previewed on the Reloading Humanism Books & Music page, this will be available in August 2026.
During the Second World War, I was one of thousands of works of art that, despite being stored in a salt-mine, was very nearly blow up and then came worryingly close to being taken as a trophy to Russia. Not yet published, the full story of my adventures wil be told in the Reloading Humanism Guide, Undercover, Under Wraps, Underground: Masterpieces from Brugges, Krems and Wienerneustadt in Altaussee. Planned for publication in 2026/2027, see the Reloading Humanism Books & Music page for a preview.
At Reloading Humanism the 13,14,15 triangle is seen as indicating the trinity of inner-standing, outer-standing and understanding that must be embraced if we are to keep the light and fire of civilization and personal happiness burning. The message is that if we ignore the inner realm of the self and do not properly understand the outer realities of the world around us, we will never be able to find a balance between the two.